Role of Wildlife Protected Areas in India
Global biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate. Habitat loss, fragmentation, habitat degradation, direct pressures like hunting and other extractive human uses are all contributing to the loss of biodiversity, which in turn are leading to the los
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Role of Wildlife Protected Areas in India
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Global Context of Biodiversity Loss General Background and Literature Review
Global biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate (Meffe and Carroll 1994; Dirzo and Raven 2003; Butchart et al. 2010). Widespread species extinctions are leading to productivity loss and stability of the ecosystems, in turn, altering the ecosystem processes (Chapin et al. 2000; Stachowicz et al. 2007; Cardinale et al. 2011; Wardle et al. 2011). Growing human pressures have altered most of the natural habitats across the globe (Sanderson et al. 2002; Rodrigues et al. 2004; Laurance et al. 2012; Geldmann et al. 2013). Although, deforestation rates vary in different parts of the world, tropical forests are the worst affected biomes. Around 274,615 km2 or 1.4 % of forests was lost from 2001 to 2005 (Asner et al. 2009). Large forest blocks have also been fragmented by deforestation, creating extensive forest edges (Broadbent et al. 2008). Human populations are responsible for the depletion of biodiversity through several devastating activities, such as excessive exploitation of forest products, hunting, harvesting, pollution and introduction of invasive species (Robinson and Bennett 2000; Rodrigues et al. 2004). Such unsustainable exploitation is driving a major decline of biodiversity (Ehrlich and Holdren 1971; Terborgh and van Schaik 2002; Rodrigues et al. 2004; Laurance et al. 2012). This cumulative consumption is altering finely balanced and intricately weaved biodiversity web structure resulting in extinction, reduced abundance, distribution and genetic diversity of species (Pereira et al. 2012). The decline may render a particular species functionally extinct along with adverse impacts on the ecosystem processes (Sekercioglu et al. 2004). It is fairly well established that ecosystems with rich biodiversity are quite stable, resilient in recovering from natural disasters apart from regular functions of productivity and providing various ecosystem services. On the contrary, ecosystems lose their productivity and power to recoup when they lose biodiversity (Hector and Bagchi 2007; Fox and Kerr 2012; Cardinale et al. 2012). © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 G.V. Reddy et al., Recovering Biodiversity in Indian Forests, SpringerBriefs in Ecology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0911-2_1
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Role of Wildlife Protected Areas in India
Though a few species appear to contribute more to the ecosystem productivity, other species acting as complementary species contribute to the overall productivity and the ecosystem services. The loss of such complementary species also leads to reduced functioning of the ecosystem. The biodiversity components, intertwined as a food web, have a complex structure and interactions. Loss of these biodiversity components, especially top predators, has a cascading effect on the producers of the ecosystem. The biodiversity loss results in increased epidemics and pests, changed vegetation structure and fire frequency (Estes et al. 2011). Twenty-five p
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